Image of the Day #4
This image follows on with the Apollo 13 crisis from yesterday. Today's image is an onboard photo taken of Jack Swigert the astronaut who famously said "Houston we've had a problem here", helping to put the final touches to the bit of kit that would save their lives..
This photo is of great historical importance about the survival of the crew on Apollo13. It shows one of the two vital and critical aspects of the return trip to Earth that helped to save their lives.
The explosion in the CM's service compartment destroyed Oxygen tank #2 and the danaged and subsequent failing of Oxygen tank #1 meant they did not have enough water, electricity and oxygen to get home. In effect it meant that whatever resources the LM had would be needed to be used to get the three astronauts back to Earth safely. But the LM was built and equipped to accommodate only two people for a 45r hour lunar landing and surface expedition.
Unfortunately great engineering does not exclude mistakes being made at design stage.
Jim Lovell (Commander of Apollo 13) said" ...The trouble was the square lithium hydroxide canisters from the CM would not fit the round openings of those in the LM environmental system. After a day and a half in the LM a warning light showed us that the carbon dioxide had built up to a dangerous level....They [mission control,] had thought up a way to attach a CM canister to the LM system by using plastic bags, cardboard, and tape- all materials we had on board. Jack and I put it together: just like building a model airplane. The contraption wasn't very handsome, but it worked. It was a great improvisation- and a fine example of cooperation between ground and space.
Backroom experts at Mission Control worked many hours to devise the fix ... It involved stripping the hose from a lunar suit and rigging the hose to the taped-over CM double canister, using the suit's fan to draw carbon dioxide from the cabin through the canister and expel it back into the LM as pure oxygen."